Blue States Practice the Family Values Red States Preach

The truth that posters like the OP don't want to acknowledge is that anyone who wants their kids to get ahead knows they have to teach them to get out
of high school, get married, hold down a full-time job *before* they think about children.

When conservatives talk about this or the religious, leftists call it preaching morality, but the dirty little secret is that they know it too even if
they won't admit as much and anyone who wants their kids to be successful in any way will drum it into their kids to try to give them the best chance
in life they can have, no matter what source you claim it's from.

The truth that posters like the OP don't want to acknowledge is that anyone who wants their kids to get ahead knows they have to teach them to get out
of high school, get married, hold down a full-time job *before* they think about children.

Then I guess according to the numbers, parents in states that vote Republican at higher rates aren't doing so hot at parenting? Because if what you
say is true about teaching kids to get out of high school, then get married, hold down and job and *then* think about having kids...they're certainly
doing a bang up job of it in so-called "red states". . . Hmmm?

If you look at the map that was posted ... most counties in most states, including blue ones, are actually red. So I'd say most parents are doing just
fine with it.

I think you are either looking at a north-south or a poverty issue when it comes to parenting problems, but then again, poor voters can and do vote
for Democrats as often as Republicans - see the urban poor. The things you are crowing about are things that tend to make people poor and it has been
documented that those things are also cyclical. Teen moms tend to beget future teens moms themselves.

Also, if what you are talking about was solely a failure of traditional values, you would expect Utah to be very, very bad off, but it's squeaky
cleaner than most of your sainted blue states. So I think your hypothesis doesn't quite wash as neatly as you want.

Understand something in this conversation you are having with me, *you* are the one playing partisan games. I am not.

Of course, if they don't have any desire to have children, "marriage" is really only useful for preserving property rights and a few other legal
issues related to tax.

I tell mine to worry more about what they want to accomplish in whatever time is allotted to them. Love, marriage and relationships can be
distractions and the compromises they force can shatter your dreams and block you from achieving your goals as surely as any bullet.

Fortunately, my ex and I were close to 30 before our daughter was born. If your going to have children, its best to wait until you can prepare for the
responsibility. There are plenty of others who are focused on rutting to the exclusion of everything else.

The presumption here is that they are having children. Those are three things that should be done before they have kid(s).

If they're not looking to have kids, then marriage isn't as important. However, should they screw up and get knocked up, they need to understand the
disadvantage they are placing both themselves and their child at from the start.

Kids do best in life when they have that stable, emotional family life, and the best way to provide that is with a family that has two stable
providers, both financially if need be and emotionally. Not to mention the enormous advantage that two extended kin networks can also provide to the
family unit.

They base this on kids? Kids tend to rebel. If their parents have liberal beliefs/lives, the kids can be more conservative. Same with conservative
parents, kids will be liberal, at least until they grow up. I have 2 kids, twins, one is way more liberal than the other. Guess what I am?

The problem with the OP is that it is very difficult to say that there are blue states and red states mainly because most states are in fact red.
However, major urban population centers tend to be blue.

Without knowing where exactly the sample set is drawn from what you could have is blue city urban poverty having large amounts of teen pregnancies but
state level data suggesting it is occurring in a red state.

By in large, teen pregnancy is highly correlated with poverty and low education. This is why you see relatively high numbers in the states like
Mississippi, Alabama, etc. At the same time, you will also see very high numbers in cities like NYC, Chicago, etc.

Poverty and lack of education is more of a factor than "Red" vs. "Blue".

Look at the demographics. More people who identify as "Democrat" are middle class or above and more educated than most of those who identify as
Republican. Poor people are more inclined to lean right and wealthier people are more inclined to lean left.

Poverty and lack of education is more of a factor than "Red" vs. "Blue".

Look at the demographics. More people who identify as "Democrat" are middle class or above and more educated than most of those who identify as
Republican. Poor people are more inclined to lean right and wealthier people are more inclined to lean left.

Democrats hold advantages in party identification among blacks, Asians, Hispanics, well-educated adults and Millennials. Republicans have leads
among whites – particularly white men, those with less education and evangelical Protestants

And if you look in general at the overall educational levels of blacks and Hispanics, you will find they are less educated on average than whites.

That does not mean there are not well educated blacks and Hispanics, only that the general average educational level is overall lower for them as
demographics.

I also love how the source you quote states "particularly men, those with less education and evangelical Protestants" as if being a man, being less
educated and being an evangelical Protestant might as well be synonymous. I am only surprised they didn't stick Southerners in there since they also
had that demographic split out too. Maybe they knew they'd be going a wee bit overboard? Nice verbal slight of hand there.

If you look at the actual graphic in your link, those are separate categories. Perhaps for a reason?

I'm just popping in here to snicker at the hypocrisy of our R members who love to point out all the faults of Blue states broad0brush style, but can't
own up to their beloved Red states' faults & deflect to county breakdowns to shove it under the rug.

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